Speaking
A speaker who brings 20 years of real practice to the stage.
People Operations executive roles at Google, and 20 years working directly with the founders building the companies that matter. I speak on people strategy, leadership, culture, and the human dimensions of building organisations at scale. My talks are direct, grounded in practice, and leave audiences with something they can actually do differently on Monday morning.
Speaking
A speaker who brings 20 years of real practice to the stage.
People Operations executive roles at Google, and 20 years working directly with the founders building the companies that matter. I speak on people strategy, leadership, culture, and the human dimensions of building organisations at scale.
Speaking
A speaker who brings 20 years of real practice to the stage.
People Operations executive roles at Google, and 20 years working directly with the founders building the companies that matter. I speak on people strategy, leadership, culture, and the human dimensions of building organisations at scale. My talks are direct, grounded in practice, and leave audiences with something they can actually do differently on Monday morning.
Signature Talks
Topics i Can Speak On
01
Human + AI: Why Your Organisation Is the Real Challenge
Every organisation is rushing to adopt AI. Most will underperform — not because of the technology, but because of what they haven't fixed underneath it. This talk makes the case that AI adoption is fundamentally a people and culture challenge, not a technical one. Anne examines why most AI initiatives stall at the manager layer, the single biggest risk and the single biggest opportunity in any AI transformation, and what leaders need to build now in terms of human and organisational infrastructure to come out ahead.
For: Leadership summits, corporate innovation events, tech conferences, C-suite offsites.
02
From Zero to 1,000: The People Strategy That Scales
What separates the startups that scale from the ones that plateau? It's rarely the product. It's the organisation. Drawing on the framework behind the book, this talk maps the five predictable stages of startup growth and what each demands of the people, culture, and leadership around it. Founders leave with a clear picture of where they are, what's coming next, and what to build before they need it.
For: Founder conferences, accelerator programmes, VC events, entrepreneurship summits.
03
Identity-First Leadership: Build the Leader Before You Build the Team
The most common and costly people strategy mistake founders make is building infrastructure before they know who they are as leaders. This talk makes the case for a different sequence and shows, through concrete client examples, what changes when founders lead from a clear identity rather than borrowed management habits. The organisation, it turns out, always mirrors the leader. Until that's addressed, no process will fix what's actually broken.
For: Leadership events, corporate offsites, executive programmes, founder communities.
04
Reinventing Performance Management: Why the Old Model Fails
The way we measure performance is broken, and most organisations know it. Annual reviews, forced rankings, and pay-by-performance models were designed for a different era and a different kind of work. Anne dismantles the assumptions behind traditional performance management and offers a sharper, more honest model. One that actually drives performance rather than documenting its absence. She draws on research, client examples, and the counterintuitive lessons from companies that have already made the shift.
For: HR conferences, scale-up leadership events, corporate L&D programmes.
05
The Culture Question: What You Tolerate Is What You Stand For
Culture is not defined by what a company celebrates. It's defined by what it tolerates. This talk is a direct, practitioner-led examination of how culture forms, how it drifts, and what founders and leaders can do to shape it before it shapes them. Anne draws on two decades of work inside organisations at every stage of growth to show what culture-building actually looks like in practice, and why the most important cultural decisions are rarely the ones that make it into the values document.
For: Founder events, leadership offsites, culture-focused conferences, HR leadership summits.
06
Flexibility and Innovation: What Corporates Can Learn From Startups
Startups are by nature flexible and innovative. They have to be. But most corporates treat flexibility as a risk rather than a competitive advantage. Drawing on her decade at Google and ten years working with the startup ecosystem across Asia and Europe, Anne shares the specific organisational conditions that make flexibility and innovation possible at scale, and why copying startup perks without copying startup thinking never works.
For: Corporate leadership events, innovation conferences, L&D summits.
Signature Talks
Topics i Can Speak On
01
Human + AI: Why Your Organisation Is the Real Challenge
Every organisation is rushing to adopt AI. Most will underperform — not because of the technology, but because of what they haven't fixed underneath it. This talk makes the case that AI adoption is fundamentally a people and culture challenge, not a technical one. Anne examines why most AI initiatives stall at the manager layer, the single biggest risk and the single biggest opportunity in any AI transformation, and what leaders need to build now in terms of human and organisational infrastructure to come out ahead.
For: Leadership summits, corporate innovation events, tech conferences, C-suite offsites.
02
From Zero to 1,000: The People Strategy That Scales
What separates the startups that scale from the ones that plateau? It's rarely the product. It's the organisation. Drawing on the framework behind the book, this talk maps the five predictable stages of startup growth and what each demands of the people, culture, and leadership around it. Founders leave with a clear picture of where they are, what's coming next, and what to build before they need it.
For: Founder conferences, accelerator programmes, VC events, entrepreneurship summits.
03
Identity-First Leadership: Build the Leader Before You Build the Team
The most common and costly people strategy mistake founders make is building infrastructure before they know who they are as leaders. This talk makes the case for a different sequence and shows, through concrete client examples, what changes when founders lead from a clear identity rather than borrowed management habits. The organisation, it turns out, always mirrors the leader. Until that's addressed, no process will fix what's actually broken.
For: Leadership events, corporate offsites, executive programmes, founder communities.
04
Reinventing Performance Management: Why the Old Model Fails
The way we measure performance is broken, and most organisations know it. Annual reviews, forced rankings, and pay-by-performance models were designed for a different era and a different kind of work. Anne dismantles the assumptions behind traditional performance management and offers a sharper, more honest model. One that actually drives performance rather than documenting its absence. She draws on research, client examples, and the counterintuitive lessons from companies that have already made the shift.
For: HR conferences, scale-up leadership events, corporate L&D programmes.
05
The Culture Question: What You Tolerate Is What You Stand For
Culture is not defined by what a company celebrates. It's defined by what it tolerates. This talk is a direct, practitioner-led examination of how culture forms, how it drifts, and what founders and leaders can do to shape it before it shapes them. Anne draws on two decades of work inside organisations at every stage of growth to show what culture-building actually looks like in practice, and why the most important cultural decisions are rarely the ones that make it into the values document.
For: Founder events, leadership offsites, culture-focused conferences, HR leadership summits.
06
Flexibility and Innovation: What Corporates Can Learn From Startups
Startups are by nature flexible and innovative. They have to be. But most corporates treat flexibility as a risk rather than a competitive advantage. Drawing on her decade at Google and ten years working with the startup ecosystem across Asia and Europe, Anne shares the specific organisational conditions that make flexibility and innovation possible at scale, and why copying startup perks without copying startup thinking never works.
For: Corporate leadership events, innovation conferences, L&D summits.
Signature Talks
Topics i Can Speak On
01
Human + AI: Why Your Organisation Is the Real Challenge
Every organisation is rushing to adopt AI. Most will underperform — not because of the technology, but because of what they haven't fixed underneath it. This talk makes the case that AI adoption is fundamentally a people and culture challenge, not a technical one. Anne examines why most AI initiatives stall at the manager layer, the single biggest risk and the single biggest opportunity in any AI transformation, and what leaders need to build now in terms of human and organisational infrastructure to come out ahead.
For: Leadership summits, corporate innovation events, tech conferences, C-suite offsites.
02
From Zero to 1,000: The People Strategy That Scales
What separates the startups that scale from the ones that plateau? It's rarely the product. It's the organisation. Drawing on the framework behind the book, this talk maps the five predictable stages of startup growth and what each demands of the people, culture, and leadership around it. Founders leave with a clear picture of where they are, what's coming next, and what to build before they need it.
For: Founder conferences, accelerator programmes, VC events, entrepreneurship summits.
03
Identity-First Leadership: Build the Leader Before You Build the Team
The most common and costly people strategy mistake founders make is building infrastructure before they know who they are as leaders. This talk makes the case for a different sequence and shows, through concrete client examples, what changes when founders lead from a clear identity rather than borrowed management habits. The organisation, it turns out, always mirrors the leader. Until that's addressed, no process will fix what's actually broken.
For: Leadership events, corporate offsites, executive programmes, founder communities.
04
Reinventing Performance Management: Why the Old Model Fails
The way we measure performance is broken, and most organisations know it. Annual reviews, forced rankings, and pay-by-performance models were designed for a different era and a different kind of work. Anne dismantles the assumptions behind traditional performance management and offers a sharper, more honest model. One that actually drives performance rather than documenting its absence. She draws on research, client examples, and the counterintuitive lessons from companies that have already made the shift.
For: HR conferences, scale-up leadership events, corporate L&D programmes.
05
The Culture Question: What You Tolerate Is What You Stand For
Culture is not defined by what a company celebrates. It's defined by what it tolerates. This talk is a direct, practitioner-led examination of how culture forms, how it drifts, and what founders and leaders can do to shape it before it shapes them. Anne draws on two decades of work inside organisations at every stage of growth to show what culture-building actually looks like in practice, and why the most important cultural decisions are rarely the ones that make it into the values document.
For: Founder events, leadership offsites, culture-focused conferences, HR leadership summits.
06
Flexibility and Innovation: What Corporates Can Learn From Startups
Startups are by nature flexible and innovative. They have to be. But most corporates treat flexibility as a risk rather than a competitive advantage. Drawing on her decade at Google and ten years working with the startup ecosystem across Asia and Europe, Anne shares the specific organisational conditions that make flexibility and innovation possible at scale, and why copying startup perks without copying startup thinking never works.
For: Corporate leadership events, innovation conferences, L&D summits.
Speaker Bio
I'm Anne Caron.
Anne Caron is a people strategy advisor, author, and international speaker with 20 years of experience at the intersection of leadership and organisation.
She spent a decade in several People Operations executive roles at Google across EMEA and APAC building and turning around teams, setting employer brand strategy across Europe, and deploying global programmes still running today. Since leaving Google, she has worked directly with hundreds of founder-CEOs across Asia and Europe, helping them build the teams, cultures, and leadership infrastructure that scale.
Anne is the author of From Zero to 1,000: The Organisational Playbook for Startups, which has sold over 2,000 copies almost entirely through word of mouth. A new edition with an AI perspective is coming in late 2026.
She speaks on people strategy, identity-first leadership, culture, performance management, and the human and organisational dimensions of AI adoption. Originally from France, she is based between Singapore, Bali, and France.
Speaker Bio
I'm Anne Caron.
Anne Caron is a people strategy advisor, author, and international speaker with 20 years of experience at the intersection of leadership and organisation.
She spent a decade in several People Operations executive roles at Google across EMEA and APAC building and turning around teams, setting employer brand strategy across Europe, and deploying global programmes still running today. Since leaving Google, she has worked directly with hundreds of founder-CEOs across Asia and Europe, helping them build the teams, cultures, and leadership infrastructure that scale.
Anne is the author of From Zero to 1,000: The Organisational Playbook for Startups, which has sold over 2,000 copies almost entirely through word of mouth. A new edition with an AI perspective is coming in late 2026.
She speaks on people strategy, identity-first leadership, culture, performance management, and the human and organisational dimensions of AI adoption. Originally from France, she is based between Singapore, Bali, and France.
Speaker Bio
I'm Anne Caron.
Anne Caron is a people strategy advisor, author, and international speaker with 20 years of experience at the intersection of leadership and organisation.
She spent a decade in several People Operations executive roles at Google across EMEA and APAC building and turning around teams, setting employer brand strategy across Europe, and deploying global programmes still running today. Since leaving Google, she has worked directly with hundreds of founder-CEOs across Asia and Europe, helping them build the teams, cultures, and leadership infrastructure that scale.
Anne is the author of From Zero to 1,000: The Organisational Playbook for Startups, which has sold over 2,000 copies almost entirely through word of mouth. A new edition with an AI perspective is coming in late 2026.
She speaks on people strategy, identity-first leadership, culture, performance management, and the human and organisational dimensions of AI adoption. Originally from France, she is based between Singapore, Bali, and France.
Past Talks
Where Anne Has Spoken
Corporate
Conferences
AI Southheast Asia
Inpired Conference
Accellelators & Founder Communities
Podcast & Panels
Talent Factory
Scaling So Far
Past Talks
Where Do You
Want to Start
Corporate
Conferences
AI Southheast Asia
Inpired Conference
Accellelators & Founder Communities
Podcast & Panels
Talent Factory
Scaling So Far
Past Talks
Where Do
You Want to Start
Corporate
Conferences
AI Southheast Asia
Inpired Conference
Accellelators & Founder Communities
Podcast & Panels
Talent Factory
Scaling So Far
Testimonials
Testimonials
See What They Said
I hired Anne as a speaker for a major fashion brand C-level executives' gathering to intervene on the topic of the impact of digital technologies on HR processes. She delivered beyond my expectations and impressed the audience by the clarity of her thoughts and her ability to switch between super useful granular tactical recommendations and making the audience understand what is really at stake in these organizational transformations. In the era of AI where soft skills and their integration within organizations are more important than ever, her perspective as a seasoned HR professional with decades of experience in and out of the tech world is highly valuable for anyone that needs inspiration grounded in real operational considerations. I can't recommend her enough.
I hired Anne as a speaker for a major fashion brand C-level executives' gathering to intervene on the topic of the impact of digital technologies on HR processes. She delivered beyond my expectations and impressed the audience by the clarity of her thoughts and her ability to switch between super useful granular tactical recommendations and making the audience understand what is really at stake in these organizational transformations. In the era of AI where soft skills and their integration within organizations are more important than ever, her perspective as a seasoned HR professional with decades of experience in and out of the tech world is highly valuable for anyone that needs inspiration grounded in real operational considerations. I can't recommend her enough.
— Fabrice Nadjari, Co-Founder Mini Studio
— Fabrice Nadjari, Co-Founder Mini Studio
Anne was one of the few keynote speakers we had at Echelon, mainly because people shy away from the content format, but Anne was a natural at it. Her years of experience working with teams both big and small and community building work give her a unique edge to bring out the best in people and to navigate the complexities of collaboration. She understands that at the core of technology, what makes organizations win isn't better tech or more capital but strong teams driven by great culture. Not only does she know her subject matter, she's able to deliver it, which she did at Echelon Singapore 2026, in engaging manner. We will always welcome her back to the event, and is my go to person for people and culture centric matters.
Anne was one of the few keynote speakers we had at Echelon, mainly because people shy away from the content format, but Anne was a natural at it. Her years of experience working with teams both big and small and community building work give her a unique edge to bring out the best in people and to navigate the complexities of collaboration. She understands that at the core of technology, what makes organizations win isn't better tech or more capital but strong teams driven by great culture. Not only does she know her subject matter, she's able to deliver it, which she did at Echelon Singapore 2026, in engaging manner. We will always welcome her back to the event, and is my go to person for people and culture centric matters.
— Mohan Belani, Co-Founder & CEO at e27 | Partner at Orvel Ventures
— Mohan Belani, Co-Founder & CEO at e27 | Partner at Orvel Ventures
Videos
Videos
See Anne Speak
CONTACT US
Let’s build the organisation your business actually needs.
Helping founder-CEOs build the leadership, culture, and organisational clarity required for growth.
CONTACT US
Let’s build the organisation your business actually needs.
Helping founder-CEOs build the leadership, culture, and organisational clarity required for growth.
CONTACT US
Let’s build the organisation your business actually needs.
Helping founder-CEOs build the leadership, culture, and organisational clarity required for growth.
Build predictable growth you can control.
If growth feels active but unpredictable, the issue is rarely effort alone. More often, it reflects a lack of clear structure.